Computer doesn't work all of a sudden..

[aevitas]

Hi guys,

Today I've been gaming most of the day with no trouble, PC ran as smooth as any other day. Played some heavy games like BF3 and GW2.

Until an hour ago, I went for a smoke and coffee and came back like 40 min later. My pc was off and I guessed sleep mode kicked in, I turn it on again and 2 sec later it turns off. To stop this I had to flip the switch of my Psu, after 2 min I tried again and same thing happened.

So I opened up my case, checked CPU power + fan cable and anything it may cause. My PC is like 3 months old so it was pretty dust clean still.

I then connected it again, it turned on and got to the gigabyte motherboard screen and then got stuck. Pressing any commands like delete didn't work so I rebooted it and now it's back in the same on/off thing as before.

My pc:

Gigabyte Z77X-D3H
8 gb of vengeance corsair ram
Corsair m4 128 gb SSD (windows boots from this)
Not sure of HDD brand, it's an older 1TB.
i5-2500K running at normal speed, not clocked
Geforce 560 GTX, not clocked or so either
Windows 7 64bit
500 WATT PSU, not sure about brand.

I didn't do anything unusual today and have never experienced anything special with this PC yet. All drivers are up to date.

The only strange thing is that I went upstairs thinking COD BO2 came out so I could see how it is, not relevant though. ;p

I did think of overheating, but after having it off for 15 min now it still directly starts booting after 2 seconds, it should last a bit longer then I guess?

Ran it with case open too, nothing unusual.

What can I do?? :/


Thanks in advance

[kassy]

try detaching and reattaching your ram, it has helped me a few times

[aevitas]

try detaching and reattaching your ram, it has helped me a few times

Ill try this. If you know, how come this helps? I'd like to learn more about this and if it works I want to know what causes it. Will report back soon.

[RaZz0r]

To me it sounds like a dying / dead power supply what PSU do you have?
Or Lose / faulty ram try removing them and putting them back in one by one to see if that helps.

You could also try clearing the CMos some motherboards have a clear CMos button.
If you don't have one you could just remove the small battery on the motherboard for a few seconds and put it back in.

[bestmint]

I've had cycle rebooting happen. Turns out it was my RAM. Re-seat it or replace. It can be because either the RAM is dying or because its not compatible with your motherboard.

[FlawlessSoul]

Ill try this. If you know, how come this helps? I'd like to learn more about this and if it works I want to know what causes it. Will report back soon.

It's possible for the connections between parts to separate due to vibration/ill fitting.

[aevitas]

Fortron Source 500W (FSP500-60 APN) is my PSU, also new.

Removing and putting back in didn't work. Removed one and that did not work either then I swapped the memory around and now my PC is on.

It seems to have some trouble loading windows though, its now on black screen. :/

I already moved the memory, not sure if it matters. It used to be; (x is memory)

Cpu / X / X

Now its cpu X / / /

What to do now? Black screen but PC is on.


Edit; after reboot I now chose 'launch startup repair'.

Blue screen, had to be shut down to prevent damage.. Try the other ram again?

Edit again; now shows nothing but black screen with a _ flashing in the top left...

Edit 4; unplugged my SSD and got into bios. CPU temp is 39 so nothing wrong there, memory shows 4096 with one stick in. Could my SSD have died..? It did load the windows loading thingy, how do I find out? Havent tried the battery reset though.

Edit 5; found out in bios that CPU warning temperature was off so I put it on 90 (or 80?)
Fan fail warning was off too :S

My memory should be 100% compatible with my mobo. Its corsair vengeance CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9

---------- Post added 2012-11-13 at 01:49 AM ----------

Okayso I put both my sticks of ram in again, tried to start up and did the boot looping again.

After pulling the plug out of my SSD it boots... I now guess the problem lies in my SSD?

Ram shows 8192 in bios, CPU temp is at 38 degrees..

---------- Post added 2012-11-13 at 02:29 AM ----------

Trying to install windows 7 on my old HDD but.. But my cd rom drive isnt shown in my bios? Used it today, the windows also is legal :/

---------- Post added 2012-11-13 at 02:43 AM ----------

Ill be damned... I plug in my SSD again and check all cables and now windows is now using my last system recovery point.... It boots up again now.



What the hell could this have been? I did clear cmos I think (put screw driver on 2 pins next to battery), can this be it??

[RaZz0r]

By the sounds of it your SSD is dead you should still have warranty on it so send it back and get it replaced.
You could try to plug it in to a different computer to see if its detected to confirm that its dead.

As for the CD/DVD Reader unplug every sata drive expect the HDD your installing windows on and the CD / DVD Reader.
You could also try swapping witch sata port its plugged in to it might be a wonky port or not plugged in all the way.

[FlawlessSoul]

What SSD is it? It's possible the drive is damaged, but it's also possible that the SATA cable is damaged.

[aevitas]

You may have missed my last edit:

"Ill be damned... I plug in my SSD again and check all cables and now windows is now using my last system recovery point.... It boots up again now.



What the hell could this have been? I did clear cmos I think (put screw driver on 2 pins next to battery), can this be it??"


Im now playing BF3 with CPUId on my side monitor to see if anything odd is happening with temperatures... Nothing at all and it's as fluid as always.

This must have been the most odd problem I've had with a PC, ever! I really would like to figure out what caused this and why. I havent changed anything in my bios, ever.. And havent installed new drivers for the past 3 weeks or so.

[Dizey]

Sounds like you have a Crucial M4 that you mislabeled as Corsair M4? Have you updated the firmware on your M4?

[aevitas]

Sounds like you have a Crucial M4 that you mislabeled as Corsair M4? Have you updated the firmware on your M4?

Yeah it's a crucial, always mix them 2 up :P

Im not sure if I updated it.. Is this important to do?

[Berri]

Sounds like a dead / Dying power supply Unit - hard to confirm though, given that the computer does get power for a short period of time.

If not that, you wanna be possibly looking at replacing your HDD and / or replacing your RAM.

[Buttfear]

Ill try this. If you know, how come this helps? I'd like to learn more about this and if it works I want to know what causes it.

Thermal creep, which is the constant expanding and contracting of components as they heat up and cool down.

[aevitas]

Strange...

Today I played GW2 for a couple of hours and some Black Ops, no problems at all. No overheating (monitored via CPUID) and all seems to run perfectly again....

I really have no clue what to try next, if my power supply was dying a CMOS reset wouldn't fix that would it.. :S

[Elenion]

Have you tested your RAM? You can download free Memtest86+ and burn the iso to a disc and run it at the boot up. If error pops up, then you will need to troubleshoot each sticks and DIM to narrow down the source of problem.

If nothing comes up, then at least you know it's not the cause of your problem.